The Pink Lady: Helen Gahagan Douglas

Politics is a dirty game, and if you're a woman it’s even twice as rough. Women in politics tend to be held to higher standards then men; they have to be tougher without seeming to lose their femininity. They are judged not only on the issues, but how they look. While their opponents may keep on the kid gloves against them, their supporters can come out swinging. Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-1980) found that out the hard way when she ran for the United States Senate in California against future Vice-President & President of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon.

The year was 1950, World War II had been over for five years, and Harry Truman was President, having been elected in his own right in 1948. It was the beginning of the post-war baby boom, but there was a storm cloud that was hanging over the country, and that was the threat of communism. The Soviets who had been allies during the War were now being looked at as the enemy. Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin has just started his anti-communist witch-hunt, declaring that he had a list of known subversives in the US government, Klaus Fuchs had admitted to selling atomic secrets to the Russians, and the Hollywood Ten, a group of directors and screenwriters, had just been cited for contempt of congress and were facing jail time. In the US, if you wanted to be elected, you had to be anti-communist; to be otherwise was to be seen as Anti-American.

This was the climate in the country when Helen Gahagan Douglas threw her hat into the ring for the US Senate. She was in the middle of serving her third term in the House of Representatives when she decided to run. If she had won, she would have been only the 4th woman elected to the Senate. Helen was getting bored with the slow pace of the House and decided it was time to run for Senator. From the beginning she faced opposition with the Democratic Party, who wanted her to wait until at least 1958 before she ran, gaining a few more years in the House under her belt. But Helen was determined, once she made up her mind to do something, it was done. In 1950, there was only one woman in the Senate who had been elected in her own right, not been appointed to serve out her husband's term, and that was Margaret Chase Smith from Maine.

Helen's opponent Republican candidate Richard Nixon couldn't have been more different. She was glamorous, charismatic and effervescent while Nixon was intense, shy, with shifty eyes and a chip on his shoulder the size of Mt. Rushmore. From an upper middle class family who lived in a mansion in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Helen was a former actress and opera singer married to the actor Melvyn Douglas. Nixon came from a far more modest background in Whittier, CA; his father ran a grocery store. While Helen had dropped out of Barnard College to pursue her acting career, Nixon went to a small local college before attending Duke University Law School where he had his first brush with the criminality that would be his downfall (he orchestrated a break-in to find out his class standing which turned out to be third). While she had grown up in a Republican family, over the years she had become more progressively liberal. Helen was everything that Nixon despised, a rich liberal who was also a woman. As far as Nixon was concerned, women didn't belong in politics, they belonged in the home like his wife Pat.

When Helen entered Congress in 1945 she was one of 9 women out of a total of 435 members. Helen made a name for herself in the House immediately scoring a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. She wasn't demure or winsome, following the leadership of the men. Helen was smart and beautiful and not afraid to speak her mind. Passionate about civil rights, Helen broke the color barrier, when she hired an African-American woman, the daughter of one of her constituents, as a secretary. She was against the arms race, believing that the atomic bomb shouldn't have been shared with the Soviets and other countries. Nor was she for loyalty oaths or outlawing the communist party, not popular stances in the house. Although she never co-authored or sponsored any legislation while in the House, she was considered impressive enough to be thought of as a potential Vice Presidential candidate in 1948, and many thought that she was Presidential material.

During the campaign for Senate, Nixon stressed his humble roots, his pretty wife Pat and two adorable daughters Julie and Tricia, a solid middle class family. So different from Helen's life, whose husband was on tour with a play during her campaign, and her two children who were in boarding school. She was painted as an elitist East Coast liberal with a Jewish husband. Even her talent was called into question by Nixon’s supporters. Why wasn’t she a famous movie-star like her husband? For the record, Gahagan had starred in one Hollywood movie, She in 1935, playing Hash-a-Motep, queen of a lost city. The movie, based on H. Rider Haggard's novel of the same name, is perhaps best known for popularizing a phrase from the novel, "She who must be obeyed." While the film received mixed reviews, it has since become a cult classic. Finding that movie making didn’t agree with her, all that waiting around, Helen had focused more on the stage and radio.

Helen hoped to focus on the domestic issues, particularly those that pertained to Californians, Civil Rights, equal pay for equal work, the rights of the migrant workers, tax cuts for low income families, all the things that Nixon had voted against. As far as Richard Nixon was concerned there was only one important issue, fighting communism. While Helen believed that communist sympathizers weren't a threat, Nixon was responsible for putting Alger Hiss behind bars. He was tight with Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover. While Nixon didn't create the climate of fear that existed in the US in 1950, he sure as hell exploited it using tactics that he sure as heck didn't learn at the knee of his Quaker mother, who no doubt was rolling over in her grave at his need to win at any cost. It was Manchester Boddy, owner and publisher of The Los Angeles Daily News, who lost the Democratic primary to Helen, who first smeared with the nickname "The Pink Lady,” claiming that she was “pink right down to her underwear.”

Nixon began alluding to her alleged Communist sympathies, pointing out that her husband had belonged to several groups that turned out to be Communist fronts. He hinted that she was a fellow traveler, citing as evidence her supposed Communist-leaning votes in Congress. He also made vaguely anti-Semitic comments referring to her as Mrs. Hesselberg (Melvyn Douglas’ real last name) Nixon’s campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, ran with the idea; he had flyers printed up on sheets of pink paper to emphasize the point. While Helen fought hard, Nixon kept her continually off balance, having to defend her record instead of being able to focus on the issues. She also had a problem raising money. Nixon was in the pocket of the big businesses of California, in particular the oil industry. Even Joseph and Robert Kennedy donated money to Nixon’s campaign. People she had counted on in the past such as Ronald Reagan had switched allegiances to the Republican Party. Helen wasn’t helped by the fact that the US had gone to war against Northern Korea or by the arrests of the Rosenbergs for passing secrets to the Soviets. Helen’s biggest mistake was in misjudging the very real fear that Americans had about a communist threat to the country.

Nixon won the election in a landslide with 59% of the vote. Helen threw in the towel on her political career. It would take more than forty years before California elected a woman to the Senate, and as if to make up for lost time, they sent two. After it was over, Helen tried to analyze what had gone wrong, before putting the whole thing in the past. She kept active, protesting against the Vietnam War (a stance which ended her friendship with Lyndon Johnson), and against the nuclear arms race. When Watergate went down in 1973, a popular bumper sticker in California at the time, read “Don’t Blame Me, I voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas.

She died in 1980 at the age of 79 from breast and lung cancer.


Sources:

Sally Denton. The Pink Lady: The Many Lives of Helen Gahagan Douglas, Bloomsbury Press (2009)
Greg Mitchell. Tricky Dick and The Pink Lady: Richard Nixon vs. Helen Gahagan Douglas - Sexual Politics and The Red Scare (1998)

Scandalous Women in Fiction: THE IRISH PRINCESS

THE IRISH PRINCESS
author: Karen Harper
Publisher: NAL, February 1, 2011

From the back cover:

Born into a first family of Ireland, with royal ties on both sides, Elizabeth Fitzgerald-known as Gera-finds her world overturned when Henry VIII imprisons her father, the Earl of Kildare, and brutally destroys her family. Torn from the home she loves, her remaining family scattered, Gera dares not deny the refuge offered her in England's glittering royal court. There she must navigate ever-shifting alliances even as she nurtures her secret desire for revenge. From County Kildare's lush green fields to London's rough-and-tumble streets and the royal court's luxurious pageantry, The Irish Princess follows the journey of a daring woman whose will cannot be tamed, and who won't be satisfied until she restores her family to its rightful place in Ireland.

My thoughts:  I first came across the name Elizabeth Fitzgerald while researching Grace O'Malley for SCANDALOUS WOMEN. And then I saw her name again while reading Tracy Borham's excellent book ELIZABETH'S WOMEN which was just published in the states this past fall. So when I heard that Karen Harper's new book was about Gera, I couldn't wait for it to be published. I grabbed my copy early Tuesday morning while browsing the front table at Barnes & Noble.  This isn't the first book by Karen Harper that I've read, I've also read THE LAST BOLEYN about Anne's older sister Mary which is excellent.  There are so many books out there set in The Tudor time period, that its almost overkill.  What I found intriguing about this book was that Gera was Irish.  The history of Ireland as I discovered while reading about Grace O'Malley is full of intriguing characters, and is virtually untapped as a setting for most historical fiction set during this time period.  Gera is the ultimate outsider at the Tudor court, her family is attainted, even though
she is half-English and related to Henry VIII through her mother Elizabeth Grey, a granddaughter of Elizabeth Woodville, she must keep a tight hold of her tongue at all times, which she often is not too successful at doing.  The novel is filled with the usual suspects, Lady Jane Grey makes an appearance, as do her parents, and Catherine Howard who is as much of a dingbat in this book as she is in the Showtime series. 

While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I didn't love it, although I loved Gera who is feisty, stubborn to the point of recklessness, fiercely loyal to her family and the idea that the Geraldines will once again rule Ireland as they did successfully for the English for almost 100 years. Gera is also beautiful with red gold hair and pale skin, when she meets the young Princess Elizabeth, she feels a sense of kinship with the girl, who like her, has been buffeted about as she is in and out of favor according to her father's will.  Henry VIII in this novel, is not the handsome figure that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers cut in Showtime's THE TUDORS.  This is more the Henry VIII that most historical fiction readers have come to know. He's crotchety, cranky, morbidly obese with a disposition that can turn from hot to cold on a dime. Gera hates Henry with a passion, and spends most of the novel trying to figure out ways to destroy him.

The early part of the novel moves quickly as the young Gera Fitzgerald is forced to leave Ireland after the reckless actions of her older half-brother Thomas, nicknamed Silken Thomas. Resourceful, and fiercely Irish, Gera manages to secrete away The Red Book of Kildare out of the country so that the English don't get their hands on it.  On the boat from Ireland to England to join the rest of her family who went to England earlier, she meets Edward Clinton, the husband of Henry VIII's discarded mistress Bessie Blount.  Despite her young age (she's 13), she's immediately attracted to Clinton, even though he's English, one of her avowed enemy. But even before she gets to England, Gera learns about treachery, when she learns that her uncle by marriage, has turned her 5 uncles into the English.

The novel for me bogged down after the execution of her half-brother and uncles.  Once Gera is at court, she becomes more of an observer, than instigator of action.  While it was fascinating to see events through her eyes, at times I found my attention wandering, until Edward Clinton came back into the story, and he and Gera sparred. Their forbidden attraction, that has to be kept hidden because Clinton is married and Gera is bethrothed to Sir Anthony Browne, a man over 40 years her senior, give the novel heart.  Otherwise, it would just be a revenge story.  The book picked up again after Edward VI's death, in the struggle for the crown between Lady Jane Grey and Mary Tudor, which leads to conflict between Gera and her new husband, because his mentor is John Dudley, the father of Guildford and Robert.  Gera is plunged once again into the action, and the book is wonderfully exciting at this point.

When Gera finally returns to Ireland at the end of the book, the reader feels as if she and the main character have come full circle.  Harper was wise to end her book when she did, although Gera's life continued for another 20 or so years after the books end.

My verdict:  THE IRISH PRINCESS features a strong, powerful female protagonist that most readers will identify with.  With a strong beginning and end, only the meandering middle kept it from being a keeper for me.  Still if you are looking for something a little different, THE IRISH PRINCESS might just be your cup of tea.

February Book of the Month: Caesar's Wives

CAESARS' WIVES
by Annelise Freisenbruch
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Synopsis: In scandals and power struggles obscured by time and legend, the wives, mistresses, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Caesars have been popularly characterized as heartless murderers, shameless adulteresses, and conniving politicians in the high dramas of the Roman court. Yet little has been known about who they really were and their true roles in the history-making schemes of imperial Rome’s ruling Caesars—indeed, how they figured in the rise, decline, and fall of the empire. Now, in Caesars’ Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire, Annelise Freisenbruch pulls back the veil on these fascinating women in Rome’s power circles, giving them the chance to speak for themselves for the first time. With impeccable scholarship and arresting storytelling, Freisenbruch brings their personalities vividly to life, from notorious Livia and scandalous Julia to Christian Helena. Starting at the year 30 BC, when Cleopatra, Octavia, and Livia stand at the cusp of Rome’s change from a republic to an autocracy, Freisenbruch relates the story of Octavian and Marc Antony’s clash over the fate of the empire—an archetypal story that has inspired a thousand retellings—in a whole new light, uncovering the crucial political roles these first "first ladies" played. From there, she takes us into the lives of the women who rose to power over the next five centuries—often amid violence, speculation, and schemes—ending in the fifth century ad, with Galla Placidia, who was captured by Goth invaders (and married to one of their kings). The politics of Rome are revealed through the stories of Julia, a wisecracking daughter who disgraced her father by getting drunk in the Roman forum and having sex with strangers on the speaker’s platform; Poppea, a vain and beautiful mistress who persuaded the emperor to kill his mother so that they could marry; Domitia, a wife who had a flagrant affair with an actor before conspiring in her husband’s assassination; and Fausta, a stepmother who tried to seduce her own stepson and then engineered his execution—afterward she was boiled to death as punishment.

If you spent time like I did during the '80's watching I CLAUDIUS with Derek Jacobi and Sian Philips, or the more recent HBO miniseries ROME (which should have lasted more than two seasons frankly) then you will want to run out and buy a copy of this book. Friesenbruch details the lives of a whole host of Scandalous Roman women, not only Messalina, but also Livia and Claudius' last wife Agrippina, mother of Nero, along with a host of other wives that have been lost to history until now. I found this book fascinating, dipping my toes into its pages, over the past several months, getting to know these women.  There's also even a little bit about Fulvia, one of Marc Antony's wives, who is an incredibly fascinating character. The author, Annelise Freisenbruch is a Latin teacher at a middle school in Dorset. Frankly if I had had this book when I was taking Latin in junior high and high school I might actually have enjoyed it more!  The book is much more than just a biography of these women, it is only a social history of what life was like for upper class Roman women during the years of the Republic and the Empire. I'm frankly surprised that no one had thought to write about these women before, but I'm very glad that Freisenbruch did.

Was Elizabeth I A Man?

Okay, this was a new one on me, the idea that Queen Elizabeth I might actually be a man.  I had actually never heard this rumor before until I watched The National Geographic Channel's special THE SECRETS OF THE VIRGIN QUEEN.  Guess what? There were no real secrets in this special, just a bunch of rehashed stuff about whether or not she and Dudley ever had a child, and why she never married.  The only new information (at least for me) was the story of the Bisley Boy.

According to THE SECRETS OF THE VIRGIN QUEEN, Elizabeth (then a princess) had died aged 10 while staying at Berkeley Castle, in  Gloucestershire (the same castle where Edward II was murdered). Her minders, terrified of the retribution of her father, Henry VIII, made a substitution. A lookalike boy from the nearby village of Bisley was put in her place and sworn to secrecy. This legend 'explained' why Elizabeth never married or had children. In fact, the tale was apparently invented as a joke by a local clergyman in the 19th century.  Bram Stoker picked it up and wrote about the story in his book about Famous Imposters.

The show contained interviews with the residents of Bisley who apparently do consider the idea that Elizabeth I was actually a dude.  One more cynical resident admitted that it was good for tourism.  They tried to pass it off by suggesting that she wore all those ruffs to hide her Adam's Apple, and that the white make-up she wore was to cover up her stubble. The one valid point that was brought up was the fact that Elizabeth I didn't want an autopsy of her body after her death. Although that could have been because she didn't want anyone cutting her up, or she wanted to conceal the fact that she wasn't actually a virgin, which is more likely.

This is my question, given the fact that Elizabeth spent her life surrounded by women who dressed her and undressed her everday, and the doctors who examined during her lifetime, how could she conceal that she was a man? I think people would have noticed that she had a penis! Especially since she did apparently get her period, if not regularly, then often enough. Plus even though Henry might have been a neglectful father, I think he would have noticed that his daughter now had an Adam's apple!

Has anyone ever heard this story before?

Winner of January Giveaway - Mistress of Nothing

The Winner of January's Giveaway is

MommyTime!

I will be emailing you in the next few days to get your address.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

Scandalous Women in Fiction: Exit the Actress

EXIT THE ACTRESS
Author:  Priya Parmar
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, February 1, 2010

From the back cover:  While selling oranges in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, sweet and sprightly Ellen "Nell" Gwyn impresses the theater’s proprietors with a wit and sparkle that belie her youth and poverty. She quickly earns a place in the company, narrowly avoiding the life of prostitution to which her sister has already succumbed. As her roles evolve from supporting to starring, the scope of her life broadens as well. Soon Ellen is dressed in the finest fashions, charming the theatrical, literary, and royal luminaries of Restoration England. Ellen grows up on the stage, experiencing first love and heartbreak and eventually becoming the mistress of Charles II. Despite his reputation as a libertine, Ellen wholly captures his heart—and he hers—but even the most powerful love isn’t enough to stave off the gossip and bitter court politics that accompany a royal romance. Telling the story through a collection of vibrant seventeenth-century voices ranging from Ellen’s diary to playbills, letters, gossip columns, and home remedies, Priya Parmar brings to life the story of an endearing and delightful heroine.

Scandalous Women says: When I first heard about this book, I thought, does the world need another book about Nell Gwynn? Especially after Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell just came out in January. And I was a little put off by the notion that the novel was going to be partly narrated by Nell's diary, since from my research, I had read that she was pretty much illiterate.  The author, Priya Parmar, writes in her afterward that she had a hard time with the idea that Nell could be an actress and illiterate but given how many bards memorized huge poems like The Iliad and The Odyssey who couldn't read, I have no problem with that idea that Nell could perform 2 or 3 plays a week without being able to read. Some heavy weight names in historical fiction provided blurbs for the book including Sandra Gulland, Philippa Gregory and one of my idols Sharon Kay Penman, so naturally I was curious to see what they saw in the book.

So I decided to give the book a try and I'm glad I did. From the first page I was sucked into this book and I couldn't put it down until I finished it. Parmar has perfectly captured the effervescent, spunky, and delightful personality of Ellen Gwynn as she calls her in the book. Her decision to also use playbills, letters and gossip columns (Ambrose Pink of The London Gazette) was genious, I really got a sense of the period and what was happening in the outside world without having to have characters either discuss it in dialogue or huge amounts of story thrown at me in narrative. I particularly loved the letters from King Charles's mother Henriette Maria, the busybody who keeps sending unwanted and unsolicited advice and the tender letters from Madame of France, the King's beloved baby sister Henriette Anne who died tragically too young.

I have to say that my favorite parts of this book and why it became an automatic keeper for me were all the scenes backstage at the theatre.  Nell's interaction with her fellow actors, the description of the plays that they were doing, the playwrights of the age including John Dryden (who knew he was such a dandy) and Etherege were exciting. I felt as if I was eavesdropping in the Green Room. I could smell the greasepaint, and the grotty rehearsal clothes, the candle wax dripping on the stage, the need for the actresses to provide their own costumes. As a former actress, I felt instantly at home in this world that Nell leaves behnd when she falls in love with the King. At the heart of the book is a story of a woman forced to choose between the profession that she loves and the man that she loves. Who can't relate to that? This is the first book where I really felt that I got to know Nell Gwynn the actress, and not just Nell Gwynn, royal mistress. We finally get to see Nell's struggles to get on the stage, her first tentative forays into this career that became a passion, how she was miscast as a tragedienne when she really excelled at comedy and how she finall;y convinced the powers that be to give her a chance to do what she was really good at.

All the usual suspects are here, Barbara Palmer, Rochester, Buckingham, but the characterizations never felt stale in Parmar's hands.  Nell's affection and respect for Catherine of Braganza touched my heart. Nell finds herself wanting to befriend the Queen at the same time that she is falling for her husband, which she knows cannot end well. My heart broke as Nell's did when she realizes how she's hurt the Queen.

Parmar won me over in the end, and I'm excited to see what she writes next. She has a natural feel for narrative drive as well as for portraying characters that the audience roots for.  Who doesn't want to see Nell win the King's heart? In Parmar's hands, Nell's conquering of the King is not a slamdunk, she bungles the first attempt, and Buckingham of all people, tries to give her advice to woo the King! Parmar's book is going on my keeper shelf next to Jean Plaidy's series set during the reign of Charles II, and Susan Holloway Scott's books.

Verdict:  Highly recommended. A behind the scenes peek at the world of Restoration Theatre seen through the eyes of pretty, witty Nell Gwnn.

Scoundrel of the Month: Robert Burns

This month starts a new feature on Scandalous Women, the Scoundrel of the Month. First up is the Scottish poet and champion shagger of Scotland, Robert Burns.


Robert Burns is pretty much the patron saint of Scotland (along with St. Andrew and Sean Connery, professional Scotsman) or near enough. He's known by many names, Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favorite son, The Ploughman Poet amongst others. A poet and chick magnet (what is with women and poets?), Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759 two miles south of Ayr, in Alloway, South Ayrshire Scotland, the eldest of 7 children. He grew up poor on a farm, and the manual labor left him with a premature stoop and a weakened constiution. Still he managed to get a decent education from his father who was self-educated and well read.  Young Robert learned history, reading, writing, and geography, when he managed to attend school, he added Latin, Frenchand mathematics to his knowledge. By the age of 15, his formal schooling was over, and he was the principal laborer on a farm. He also wrote his first poem, inspired by what else, a woman named Nellie Kilpatrick, entitled O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass.

His poems are written chiefly in Scottish language although he also wrote in English as well as a 'light' Scots dialect. Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, revising them and adapting them and preserving them for future generations. Besides writing poetry, his interests included drinking a lot of whisky and shagging many women. Apparently, he was such a dude with the ladies, that other men used to have Burns write love letters for them like Cyrano de Bergerac. Looking at the above picture you can see why so many women fell for him, he wasn't half bad looking, rather sensitive and sweet, with those puppy dog eyes. What woman could resist a man who has written a poem inspired by them? Robert's reputation with the ladies got him into a lot of trouble with the elders of the local church who considered him a bit of a reprobate.  He knocked up his mother's servant Elizabeth Paton who gave birth to his first child also named Elizabeth in 1785.  Meanwhile he had been courting another woman named Jean Armour who later became his wife.  Jean gave birth to twins but that didn't keep Burns faithful.

Although he and Jean had gone through a marriage ceremony and he signed a paper to that effect, her parents weren't happy at the idea, so Burns felt free to go a roaming! He had made plans to travel to Jamaica to take a job but couldn't afford the fare, so he spent his time courting Mary Campbell who he had met in church. He wrote more poems dedicated to Mary including The Highland Lassie, Highland Mary, and To Mary in Heaven.  Rumor has it that Burns and Mary exchanged bibles and plighted their troth over the Water of Fail. Unfortunately Mary died of Typhus in October of 1786 leaving Burns free again.

Next up Burns headed to Edinburgh where his poems were published under the title Poems, Cheifly in the Scottish Dialect. He was now a literary celebrity, invited everywhere,, hobnobbing with the glitterati as well as the aristocracy of Scottish society, impressing the young 16 year old future writer Walter Scott.  Women now doubt threw themselves at his feet, and he began a platonic affair with a married woman who was seperated named Agnes "Nancy" McLehose who he called 'Clarinda.' However Nancy wasn't quite so willing to drop her pantaloons so Burns moved on to her servant Jenny Clow who bore him a son. When Nancy sailed for Jamaica to reconcile with her husband, Burns finally returned to the ever faithful Jean Armour who bore him 9 children in total, the last born on the day that Burns died.

Although famous, he was still broke, not having such things as royalties back then. So he took a job as an exciseman (like another writer Herman Melville who was forced to toil at the Customs House in New York). He died at the rather young age of 37 of heart disease exacerbated by a life of excess and hard manual labor.

When he died, 10,000 people came to watch and pay their respects. This was back when Scotland wasn’t exactly running over with people. He was the equivalent of a modern day rock star. Can you imagine 10,000 people turning up for a poet’s death today? Every year on the anniversary of his birth, Scots celebrate Burns with a supper, where they address the haggis, and drink lots of whiskey. According to Wikipedia, in 2009 Burns was voted by the public as being the Greatest Scot. Scottish actor Gerard Butler is supposed to be playing Burns in a new movie, which is sort of fitting since he has a bit of a reputation with the ladies as well.

Sources:

Robert Burns Country